Raising awareness of the need for rehabilitation
Representatives of condition-specific organizations
Alzheimer's Disease International
Coalition for Global Hearing Health
Dementia Alliance International
Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health of the Bone and Joint Decade (G-Musc)
The International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)
International Cerebral Palsy Society
International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation
International Diabetes Federation
International Osteoporosis Foundation
International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS)
ISCoS International Spinal Cord Society
Les Amis de La Fondation Motrice
National Rehabilitation Centre
Spinal Cord Injury Association of Cambodia
The World Heart Federation
Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)
World Federation for Mental Health
World Federation for Neurorehabilitation
World Federation for Neurorehabilitation (WFNR)
World Federation of Neurology
World Stroke Organisation
International Council of Ophthalmology
European Associationof Preventive Cardiology
Background
• Improvements in medical treatment and healthcare systems have resulted in higher survival rates from disease and injury, with many people continuing to live with some form of residual impairment.
• This, in combination with rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases and the ageing population, implies a growing demand for rehabilitation services.
• In many parts of the world, however, the capacity to provide rehabilitation is limited or non-existent and fails to adequately address the needs of the population.
Common Ground
• For most chronic conditions, which have rehabilitation and secondary prevention following an acute event, all share many of the same psycho-social benefits/outcomes, and that investment in rehabilitation for one condition can have many translational benefits for any other condition
• Independent of condition, the earliest commencement of rehabilitation following diagnosis and/or acute care, is proven to greatly enhance uptake, completion and longer-term outcomes of rehabilitation;
• Rehabilitation, which involves good education and tooling up patients to be better able to self-manage their condition, saves money through preventing costly re-hospitalisation; in many cases the cost of educational and self-management programmes can be delivered in low-resourced settings
Common Ground
• In the medical world emphasis in mostly on cure. Rehabilitation is rarely included in training programs for medical personal
• Once we can include rehabilitation in the spectrum of the medical treatment of all conditions, we can begin to move from restoring function of an organ, to helping restore function of a person, to minimize the effect of the disability.
• It is not about mortality, it is about functional impairment and disability
• It is not about survival, it is about participation and functioning and quality of life
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness in general of the need for rehabilitation?
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness in general of the need for rehabilitation?
• raising awareness
• coordinated effort
• international
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness in general of the need for rehabilitation?
• This will require very good coordination and collaboration to develop a range of strategies that make knowledge accessible at multiple times and in multiple ways,
• Strategies may involve use of written research/evidence summaries and policy briefs; electronic and web-based tools, media and advocacy, oral presentations, national stakeholder policy dialogues and community-level engagement programs, etc.
• Key enablers will include personal contact/relationship with policymakers, understanding of policy environment, timeliness and relevance of evidence (including cost-benefit) and summarised information/brief with clear implementable recommendations.
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness among policy makers
of the need for rehabilitation?
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness among policy makers
of the need for rehabilitation?
Specific Actions:
•Demonstration of the Burden of Disability – YLD
– Health Economy
– Work Loss
– Personal Burden
•Demonstration of the Efficacy of Rehabilitation as a Health Intervention
– Evidence-based approach
– Health Economy
– Reduced Work Loss
– Personal Examples
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness among policy makers
of the need for rehabilitation?
Specific Actions:
•Global Audit – on Rehab Structure, Provision and Finance
•National Audits – check percentage of eligible patients sent into rehabilitation,
– check the quality and outcome of the delivered service.
•Request Commitment of Ministries of Health – for rehabilitation as a medical intervention
•Implement legal framework – guaranteeing patients access to rehabilitation if needed
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness among policy makers
of the need for rehabilitation?
Specific Actions:
•Establish Political Rehabilitation (Magna) Charta – Global Level (WHO)
– Regional Level (EU etc)
– National Level (country)
•Rehabilitation Day – Classic Media
– Social Media
•Mobilize Patient Associations
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness among civil society
of the need for rehabilitation?
• Demonstrate that the cost of chronic diseases extends beyond
the direct costs of medical care – Days lost off work and early retirements are major parts of indirect
costs
– In addition, it draws in time and effort of family, friends and work colleagues/employers
– there is an indirect effect on domestic, community and loss of work productivity beyond the patient
• Demonstrate that appropriate rehabilitation is leading to cost savings in the working age
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness among civil society and private sector
of the need for rehabilitation?
• focussing on equity and access to rehabilitation throughout
life to enable and maintain participation and quality of life
• promoting the potential role of public-private partnership to enhance rehabilitation service development, delivery, research and innovation.
What can international organizations do in a coordinated effort to raise awareness among medical society
of the need for rehabilitation?
Specific Actions
•increasing awareness by education of physicians (specialists and primary care), and other health professionals
•Teaching Collaborative Competencies – supporting the WHO program of Integrated, People-centred health
services.
•Improve Integration of Rehabilitation into Medical Guidelines
Key Messages
• Rehabilitation is an integral part of the health care system
• Rehabilitation has distinct aims – participation, functioning and quality of life
• Rehabilitation produces costs – but it saves money in the long run
• Rehabilitation for All at All Stages of Life
• 1. The need to have some evidence that the programme is effective and makes a change in people's lives;
• 2. When talking to governments it should not only be the experts, but people who are affected as well.
• 3. Finding out who are the key decision makers, including secondary decision makers who prepare for the political level. They can be your champions within the government and you need to build a relationship with them.